Niagara Region Fishing

[Spiel]

Niagara Region Fishing

 

 

August 21, 2008

Fishing Line /By Will Elliott / buffalonews.com

 

 

Lake Erie

 

Wave action often outdoes fishing action on Erie waters. When boaters can get out, deeper water proves most productive.

 

Both walleye and perch seekers find fair numbers over deep drop-offs and suspended sites.

 

Perchers out of Cattaraugus Creek did best at 63-foot depths this past week. Limit catches are rare, but some buckets (coolers) have seen 20-plus catches from the deeps east and west of Cattaraugus Creek.

 

Trollers have bottomed out at depths of 70 feet or more between Cattaraugus Creek and Dunkirk Harbor. Down rigs did as well as side planers and lead-core line rigs. Take along a mixed bag of trolling tricks. One boater swears by harnesses with the freshest of worms (nightcrawlers); another vessel’s crew shows an assortment of body baits (Rapalas, Renoskys, Thundersticks, etc.).

 

Deep-water drifters continue to work walleyes well off the Buffalo and Lackawanna shoreline. Most ’eyes go for spinner rigs bumped along bottom at depths of 40 feet or more.

 

Bass take up feeding depths from near-shore rock structures — as shallow as 13 feet some mornings — to suspended depths where walleyes roam over bottoms more than 100 feet down. Drop-shot rigs work best, but a good jig caster can still have tons of fun with smallies right now. Berkley’s new series of Gulp minnows and crayfish sometimes outfish the live-bait versions.

 

Niagara River

 

Gulp baits also connect on bass in the lower Niagara River. Drifters occasionally hook a walleye, but bass dominate the drifts from Lewiston down to Fort Niagara. Walleye drifters do better with spinner rigs.

 

Lake Ontario

 

The Niagara Bar can be good-to-great from bass bites — when winds settle down and move in from the south or west.

 

Out deeper, kings roam off the Niagara Bar. A salmon, taken near the bar, currently leads the LOC Derby.

 

Olcott Harbor also draws good numbers of incoming kings. Most trollers begin at 55-foot depths and do well running spoon rigs close to bottom at depths of 60 and 70 feet, according to Wes Walker at Slippery Sinker Bait & Tackle in Olcott.

 

Shore anglers and all recreational fishing folk can find a good variety of fish within casting range at either Wilson or Olcott or Point Breeze.

 

Northern pike have begun moving around Olcott as well as Wilson Harbor. Yellow perch have been plentiful, but the bass bite has been best at all three ports.

 

Early morning casters reach brown trout chasing bait into harbor waters. Heavy casting spoons (Little Cleos, Wabblers, etc.) work well. A silver body with either a blue or green side color gets their attention.